Fernando Varela

“My work, intimately bound to this tradition of spirituality, is undertaken within a constant search for transforming internal vivid, sometime revelatory, experiences into a language that manages to convey it.

Through series such as “Origins (Orígenes)”, “Word Silenced (La Palabra Callada)”, “Primeval Forms (Formas Primarias)” and now “Shape and Void (Forma y Vacío)” I am trying to unveil an intimate experiential vision by way of form, color, symbol and, at times, language.

In my work I strive to imbue in the viewer an attitude of contemplation at an intuitive level, requiring their active participation in order to be able to covey the spiritual and, simultaneously, the palpable content of the work.

We could compare it to a mystical experience.

The mind in silence, the heart in anticipation, these are the circumstances for drawing more closely to the experience we wish to transmit.

Spirituality in contemporary art fights an internal struggle between the will of society driving us towards conventional communication via the overwhelming use of the images of the world, and the personal will of the artist to communicate a purely spiritual experience.

At present the viewer is passive and needs art which astounds and agitates, art which must be active and transmits its content with immediacy, easily readable and preferably impactful.”

– Fernando Varela

 

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2014 “Recent Works: Drawings and Paintings” – Espacio 7, La Romana, Dominican Republic.
2013 “Origins and Primary Forms” – Museum of Modern Art, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
2012 – “Origins and Primary Forms” – Gallery of the Mayor’s Office. Parallel Exp. XI Biennial of Cuenca. Ecuador.
“Origins and Primary Forms” – Metropolitan Center – Museum, Quito, Ecuador.
2011 “Origins and Primary Forms” – Museum of Anthropology and Contemporary Art (MAAC), Guayaquil, Ecuador.
2010 “Caribes” – Catador Exhibition Spaces, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
2009 “Recent Works” – TheDistrict, Gallery, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
2008 “Sueños Frágiles” – Varelli,contemporary Art – Gallery – La Romana, Dominican Republic.
2007 “Espacios Alternos” – TheDistrict, Gallery, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. 2006 –
“La Palabra Callada” Museum National of Visual Art – Montevideo, Uruguay. –
“La Palabra Callada” – Varelli,contemporary Art – Gallery, la Romana, Dominican Republic.
2005 – “La Palabra Callada” – Museum of Modern Art, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. –
“La Islaaisla” Varelli, contemporary Art -Gallery– La Romana, Dominican Republic.

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2007 Arteamericas Fair ,Varelli,contemporary Art – Gallery. Miami U.S.A. 2006 “Black and White” – District –Gallery Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
“Water” Varelli, contemporary Art, Gallery La Romana, Dominican Republic.
2005 “Black and White” Varelli, contemporary Art Gallery – la Romana, Dominican Republic.
2004 “Arte del Caribe hoy” Galería Sin Titulo – San Juan, Puerto rico
“Now”,dominican contemporary Art
”Varelli Gallery – La Romana
2002 “Drops to Drops” Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery – Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
2000 “The Circle get close” Dominican contemporary Art – New Cork, city collage, U.S.A. Grand.Fair. Constrast Gallery – Gand, Bélgica.
1999 Herning Fair – Buchelhax, Gallery – Herning, Dinamarca.
“Joseph Beuys was here” Saw Gallery – Ottawa, Canadá.
“Caribean insular” – Exclusión, Fragmentación y paraíso” Museo entremeño e iberoamerican of contemporary Art, Badajoz, Spain.
1998 Bienal of Cumaná, Venezuela. “Carivista” Caribbean contemporary Art – Bridgeston, Barbados.
1997 Estrasburgo Fair, Contrast Gallery – France. “Incide Projetion” – Kassel, Alemania. Copenhagen Fair, Buchelhax Gallery– Copenhagen, Dinamarca.
1996 “Modern and contemporary Art of the Dominican Republic” Ameritas Society New Cork, U.S.A.
“Modern and contemporary Art of the Dominican Republic” Bass Museum – Miami, U.S.A.
“Three Caribbean Artists” La Galería – Quito, Ecuador.
Copenhagen Fair , Buchelhax Gallery – Copenhagen, Dinamarca.

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